Djurdjevic - Personal Photos -LA, Europe, NY

23 Jan 2011

May 2008 - Los Angeles-London-Paris-Belgrade

St. George's Day in Belgrade

My second St. George's Day of the year was as special as the first one on April 23, but in a different way

BELGRADE, May 6, 2008 - In my family we are used to celebrating every major holiday twice - once by the new (western) calendar, and once by the old (eastern) calendar. As some of you know, on Apr 23, I celebrated the St. George's Day at home in Arizona for the first time (click here to see what happened onm Al-Khadir-St. George's Day, but you will need a password to access it - so ask for it if you don't have it).

Anyway, May 6 is St. George's Day in Serbia. So this morning, I went to a 9AM service at the Saborna (Congregational) Church. Churches frown at photos being taken inside, but I figured St. George would not mind it if I tried to educate some of my friends about him and this holiday. So I took two "illicit" shots without a flash. If you take a look at the left shot, you will see a table on which the people celebrating St. George have laid out some special breads and dishes they prepared, according to traditions, so that they can be blessed at the end of the service. Afterwards, I went for a short walk in the nearby Kalemegdan Park which is where the two right photos were taken - legally! (with the subject's permission) :-)

The editor and a reporter of the White magazine to whom I promised an interview, invited me for a St. George celebration at the Serbian Medical Society building in George Washington Street. It turns out St. George is the patron of the Serbian doctors, as well as the whole country, since the medical society was formed on this day in the 19th century.

To my great and pleasant surprise, I was first given a private tour of the Medical Museum by its director,

Buda Pavlovic (left). The museum is one of only three such facilities in the world. The second skull was excavated near the southern Serbian city of Nis. It is about 1,000 years old, and it contains the first proof that the Serbs were practicing dental fillings that far back. This man's filling was made of rosewood, which is evidently tough enough to have survived all these centuries. The middle right shot depicts some Roman instruments, while the rightmost picture is that of an early X-ray machine. Those were just some of many interesting object preserved in this medical museum.

Afterwards, I attended my second St. George's service of the day. This time, it was performed by Archbishop Atanasije on the steps of the Medical Society's building.

The service was very moving, especially as an excellent choir participated in it. Check out the four music video clips from it...

Just click on the above links to view and listen to the short video clips. It will be worth the wait for the MPG files to download.

Archbishop Atanasije's sermon at the end of the service was very moving. He spoke lovingly of that Roman war hero George who was loved by his troops as well as his superiors, both for his courage and his wisdom. "But what set him apart from other men was his sense of timing," said His Grace. "He chose exactly the right moment when he would have the maximum impact on his people to declare himself a Christian publicly, in front of his troops. And for that, he suffered terribly. But not only did he endure all the tortures, he rejoiced while it was happening. Only a man imbued with the Spirit of God could have done that."

After the service, I had a brief chat with Archbishop Atanasije (left), and then went into the interview with my hosts (right photo)...

After the interview, I'll take you on another walking tour of Belgrade through a different part of the city, wehre I walked myself to another appointment.

St. Mark's Cathedral is the second largest church in Belgrade. I walked around it and also spent some time inside, where a procession of St. George celebrants were saying their prayers and offering their respects to the Patron Saint. That's where you can also see a crypt of the Serbian Czar Dusan (1355) who was the ruler at the time when Serbian was one of the most powerful empires in Europe (14th century).

Right next to St. Mark's is a tiny Russian Holy Trinity church (two left photos). It was open for St. George's Day, so I went in. It was the first time ever that I have been inside that church which has always been locked before. Finally, I also took a picture of the nearby parliament building over whose seats next Sunday's election will be fought. From heavenly and holy to earthly and dirty... Well, that's what politics is like everywhere.

Meanwhile, my second St. George's Day of the year was great fun in Belgrade. I got to visit four of my favorite churches in one day, and part-take in a service by an Archbishop. It doesn't get much better than that...